Gateway Community College to Sponsor a Big Read and a Little Read

NEW HAVEN – Gateway CommunityCollege’s Library and Learning Commons will hold a "Big Read" and a "Little Read" this month, according to a statement.

"As part of the Big Read, GCC students, faculty, staff as well as those in the Greater New Haven community are encouraged to read Charlayne Hunter-Gault’s book 'To the Mountaintop, My Journey through the Civil Rights Movement' and then take part in a shared discussion about it at 3:15 p.m.  April 22," the statement said,

GCC’s Early Learning Center also will hold "a Little Read for the center’s pre-school students and their families at 4:30 p.m. April 24. The Little Read is part of a city-wide reading day for young children," the statement said.

ELC Director Marge Weiner said, also in the statement, that the story-telling will take place in the children’s section of the Library and Learning Commons April 24. The children and their families will read "Whistle for Willie" by Ezra Jack Keats, the statement said. 

Weiner said she wants ELC families to partake in all the resources Gateway’s new library has to offer.

 

Also in the statement: 

The Big Read is the second event in a discussion series funded by the grant: “Nonviolent Conflict Resolution:  From the Personal to Communal, Local to Global.” Ogbaa said she wants the Library and Learning Commons to be a place where lifelong reading is celebrated and where people can gather to learn from one another.

A celebrated author and journalist, Hunter-Gault was one of two black students to desegregate the University of Georgia in 1961 and the first black woman writer at The New Yorker magazine. Multiple copies of her book are on reserve in GCC’s Library. Hunter-Gault spoke at Gateway in February and signed copies of her book. She urged students and all in attendance to move the civil rights cause continually forward, finding ways to stand up for the rights of all people.

As part of the Little Read, each child will take home a copy of Whistle for Willie and the ELC staff will create a take-home activity centered on the book that the families can do together.  “It’s a wonderful way to celebrate reading,” Weiner said.

The Little Read is part of the Week of the Young Child, an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, to focus public attention on the needs of young children and their families and to recognize the early childhood programs and services that meet those needs. 

Editor's note: All information in this post was contributed.